Creepy Band: The Curse Of The Cloak

Uncanny in name and sound, Creepy Band is one of those encounters you never forget or drive out of your mind no matter your reaction to their unique and evocative sounds, though it is hard to imagine anyone not being enthralled and wrapped up in the sinister creativity going on especially within their debut album. The Curse Of The Cloak is a delicious eerie encounter which paints and evokes colourful haunting emotions and imagery through its collection of aural ‘horror movies’ and makes for the most compelling playmate each and every time its long spooky fingers are allowed to tease the senses.

The Chicago quintet of Dave Henderson (vocals), Sam Huff (keys/organ), Jake Gold (guitar), Ray Knipe (drums), and Benji Jacobs (bass), came together to play one show on All Hallow’s Eve 2010, but they and the devils raised had such fun that the Creepy Band emerged from the carnage to go forth and overrun the souls of their home city ever since. Influences for the musicians and thus the band come from the likes of Black Sabbath and The Doors, the latter an open rich and mesmeric flavour with their first album. To the influences which seemingly spice what is a truly distinct sound on The Curse Of The Cloak, you can also add potent flavours of bands such as Th’ Legendary Shack Shackers, Danzig, and with the dark vaudeville tones which wash over the ear throughout the release, The Shanklin Freak Show. Their sound is a masterful conjuration of delicious discord, slashing guitars, predatory rhythms, and enveloping church organ, a combination that leaves its mysterious prints on every thought, emotion, and atom.

As the opening caress of church organ within the opening Intro wraps the ear with blistered prayer inside its touch, the album immediately is one of intrigue further enforced by the emergence of Doomsday Device, a song with heavy resonance, snapping rhythms, and pagan like psychedelic breath. The song is a weave of lush melodic strokes within the continuing to re-sound presence and heart of the song created by the deep dwelling bass stalking and punchy drums. The vocals of Henderson sway over the emerging tale coating the musical canvas with an expressive story telling as compelling as the sounds coaxing them forth. It is a hypnotic start carried right through the album starting with the following Ray’s Riff, another song like all which offers a fascination impossible to pull away from. Dark and shadowed the track entwines vocal and energy squalls with questioning melodic intrusions and sultry enticement for a wholly engaging evocation of the passions.

As Shipsong floats upon the shores of the senses with its bewitching xylophone spawn probing and stomping beats, the album takes a riveting detour into different but equally compulsive waters, the track with vocals from Huff leading the romp aural addiction. The song has received strong airplay with The Bone Orchard radio show, the lush soak of delta blues and psychobilly with a polka to its stance adding its own distinct character to the fiery touch of the song one of the most potent invitations into the album. The breeze of steam punk also within its passage is another thrilling kiss upon the heart and helps breed a full and overwhelming persuasion for the passions, not that it or the album finds any resistance.

The garage rock gnarl of Live Amongst Horror takes the listener to another portentous port of call, its occasional teasing and pick-pocketing of the senses adding extra mischief to the overall unrestrained eagerness whilst songs like the dramatic, emotive Ballad and Damn The Old Man with its theatrical gait unveil further evocative aural paintings for thoughts and emotions to immerse within.

The contagious swagger and beckoning of Shipsong pt. II incites full rapture and anthemic indulgence from the listener before the addictive sonic drizzling of Red Fish, Dead Fish frees its own irresistible wanton temptation from which there is no escape. The unrelenting insistence of the latter is insatiable and once winning its cause leads one into the conflagrant depths of the magnificent Chromatic Descent; a seventies psychedelic sonic blaze from which there is no escaping the Doors comparison. It is a sensational track which in turn passes its triumph to the similarly layered closer Let There Be Light with its more caustic and rasping voice.

It is a final fanfare of excellence from The Curse Of The Cloak, an album which deserves every ounce of acclaim it receives and more. Need an engrossing companion for the beckoning shadows or a bedtime chill for those dark nights than Creepy Band is the perfect instigator to those welcoming nightmares.

The RingMaster Review

The RingMaster

Music writer/reviewer and band/release promo/bio writer.
Artists previously worked with include: In Vain, The Capsules, Solar Halos, Seneron, Crashgate, Able Archer, Machine Rox, Fahran, Centre Excuse, Evanstar, and many more as well as FRUK and Pluggin' Baby.

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Presenter of The Bone Orchard and RingMaster Review podcasts promoting the best underground bands and sounds from metal to rock, punk to noise and more; continually presenting the cream of new independent releases across all genres.

Dark poet at The Carnivale of Dark Words and Shadows http://carnivaleofdarkwordsandshadows.webs.com

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